


Day #15: Bauble

by Accal1a



Series: December Nickels Insanity [15]
Category: Cut & Run - Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux, Sidewinder Series - Abigail Roux
Genre: Boys In Love, Christmas Fluff, Fluff and Crack, House Guests, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-07 13:18:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16854685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Accal1a/pseuds/Accal1a
Summary: Ty and Zane go to Colorado to visit Nick and Kelly...and Ty takes great affront to their Christmas tree.





	Day #15: Bauble

It had become a silly tradition. 

Wherever they were in the world, whatever they were doing, they had to buy a horrific Christmas ornament for their tree. It had started when Kelly was in Boston and he's seen a purple glittery Jesus and proudly plonked it down on the banquette table, much to Nick's horror.

When they'd stopped laughing about it, Nick had put it on the tree, much to Kelly's delight.

After that they made it their mission to find the most awful ornaments, the gaudier, pointless and confusing the better. 

Their tree looked like a Goodwill on acid.

~~~

When Ty and Zane arrived for a pre-Christmas Christmas, Ty spotted the tree straight away and stared at it, bags still in hand. He was blocking the door and Zane had to push him in so that he could get in out of the cold.

"What. The. _Fuck_. Is. That?" He said, pointing at the monstrosity.

Kelly looked up over his book with confusion. "What's what now?"

" _That_." Ty replied, stalking over to the tree and staring at it with horror. It was worse up close.

"It's our tree." Kelly said simply, still confused about Ty's ire.

"That is not a tree. That is a…a…" Words seemed to fail Ty and he threw his hands up in the air. "This is Irish's doing isn't it? IRISH! GET OUT HERE!"

Nick poked his head over the bannister, running a towel through his hair. 

"Yes! I know you're here! Give me a minute, God."

"We need to have words."

"Oh boy." Nick replied, glancing at Kelly. 

Kelly shrugged.

"I'll be right down." Nick finished. He knew Ty's 'I'm about to wind up and then spiral' voice.

~~~ 

Ty seemed to call his own truce over dinner, and they had had a wonderful time eating good food and chatting about their many escapades. 

Technically, Zane shouldn't be telling them about some of the stuff he got up to at the FBI, but these men had, at one time, had security clearances far higher than he would ever have. They knew how to keep a secret. 

For their part, half of Sidewinder shared stories with Zane too, or as much as they could. It made Zane smile to see the men 'subtly' try and stop their compatriots from giving away national secrets. Kelly got a little too close to a location at one point and Ty had coughed so obviously that he'd actually swallowed down some mashed potato and had a proper coughing fit. By the time he'd finished, Kelly was putting his Corpsman skills to use rather than just speaking about them. Nick got a kick under the table so hard from Kelly at one point that he winced, then kicked back causing Kelly to swear at him. Ty made a comment about the couple playing some aggressive footsie, and Zane had to laugh. Even the fact they were trying to include him warmed his heart more than he could say.

When the plates were cleared away and they were lounging in the sitting room, Nick and Kelly on their brand new sofa and Ty and Zane on the one perpendicular to it, Ty wound up again.

"So, guys." Ty said in a measured voice.

"It's just a tree…" Kelly sighed. He was trying, he hoped, to head off what was already proving to be an impressive argument.

Ty turned on his friend, eyes narrowed. " _Those_ ," He said, gesturing out of the window, "are trees. _That_ is an affront to God."

Kelly smacked himself in the head and got up, quirking his head to get Zane to follow him into the kitchen area.

"Any vices I _can_ give you so we can get through this together?" Kelly asked wryly, pulling a beer out of the fridge for himself.

"Chocolate?" Zane said, laughing.

"Got you covered." Kelly replied, opening a cupboard which was full of all different sorts of sweets.

Zane raised an eyebrow at the offering.

"Nick likes something sweet after…"

"…THE DEAL IS YOU DON'T TALK ABOUT SEX AND I DON'T FREAK OUT!" Ty shouted from the living room, somehow able to keep up with bickering with Nick and eavesdropping on the other two men at the same time.

"Shut up, Tyler." Nick replied at the same time as Kelly dropped Zane a wink.

"You did that on purpose." Zane said under his breath.

Kelly grinned at him. "He's about to drive Nick up the wall, I have to help the only way I can."

~~~

After an hour of standing in the kitchen commentating on the fight the two best friends were having (and amusing themselves greatly at their husband's expense), Kelly and Zane retreated to the deck, bundled up in coats and scarves.

"What was it like living with them both at the same time?" Zane asked, sitting in one of the surprisingly comfortable wooden chairs. He was morbidly curious about the dynamic between the six men. He'd seen the five remaining members of Sidewinder in action multiple times, and it was a thing of beauty to see how well they worked together in battle. When they were off the field though, they bickered often and Zane still couldn't quite work it out.

"Oh God. It was hell." Kelly said theatrically, though not entirely untruthfully. He sat down in the chair next to Zane and took a long pull of beer.

"I can imagine." Zane laughed, the echo of Ty's recent shout of 'BUT NONE OF THEM MATCH!' ringing in their ears.

"I mean it was weird in a way. We spent all of our time together both in the field and off, and so we all know each other front to back at this point. If we want to pick a fight, we know how to do it. If we want to hurt each other then we can…"

Kelly trailed off, and Zane knew they were both thinking about Nick and Ty going at it in Scotland, and how that had been a brutal argument that had taken them a long time to come back from; how the friendship was never going to go away, but that it would be forever changed by everything that had happened to them since they parted ways when Ty entered the FBI without Nick.

"…but it _also_ means that if we want to rile each other up like this then we can…and sometimes we would, just for something to do." Kelly reminisced.

"You guys would deliberately start arguments?"

"Ask Nick whether a blueberry is a berry sometime."

"DO NOT FUCKING ASK ME THAT!" Shouted Nick, the sound slightly muffled through the walls of the cabin.

Zane and Kelly fell about laughing.

"You can take the Marine out of Recon…" Zane wheezed.

"…but you can't take the 'recon' out of a Marine." Kelly finished, barely breathing he was laughing so hard.

The door to the cabin opened with a bang.

"And _what_ is so funny out here?" Ty said, glaring at the men.

Of course that sent Kelly and Zane into another peal of laughter. 

Ty tutted and went back into the cabin. It was quiet for a few seconds, before the scream.

"IRISH! WHAT THE FUCK IS…I DIDN'T EVEN _SEE_ THAT ONE BEFORE!!"

"I thought you'd like that one." Nick said slyly.

"Why would I..." Ty said, stalking closer to the tree, pulling the offending ornament off and peering at the small lettering at the bottom of the horrific crab figurine.

Nick stood impassively off to the side, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Outside, Kelly elbowed Zane to get him to stop laughing, and gestured to the window so they could peer in to watch.

"It says 'Baltimore'," Ty said incredulously, "you…you disgraced my city?"

"Your city is literally known for its crabs." Nick said, barely containing a laugh.

"Our crabs," Ty said, advancing on Nick and pointing the offending multi-coloured _thing_ at his best friend, "do not look like this."

Nick didn't say anything, merely shrugged.

"This is a _betrayal_ , O'Flaherty. You know how I feel about this time of year." Ty said, jabbing the air with a tiny claw.

"Oh Grady, don't be mean, it's Christmas." Nick said in a simpering tone of voice.

"This is an affront to the meaning of Christmas!" Ty shouted.

" _You're_ an affront to the meaning of Christmas!" Nick replied at precisely the same volume.

Kelly and Zane turned back to each other, exasperated but with soft, fond smiles on their faces, listening to their husbands bicker as the sun set.

They were content to listen to the sounds of the forest around them, watch nature, and, when the time came to it, stop the loves of their lives from murdering each other.

Sounded like a perfect Christmas.

**Author's Note:**

> Come and visit the [Cut & Run Discord Server](https://discord.gg/vvy6c76) and join us as we discuss/scream about this awesome series.


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